A local car dealership has pitched in to help Foundation for Youth obtain a new 15-passenger Chevrolet van which will help the agency’s Boys and Girls Club lower a growing waiting list for families seeking services.
Chevrolet of Columbus donated half the cost of a 2017 Chevrolet passenger van valued at $25,000 to FFY, allowing the agency to obtain the vehicle in January.
Karina Willats, FFY chief development officer, said FFY was experiencing a bit of an issue this winter when one of its three aging passenger vans lost heating capacity and could not be used in this winter’s frigid temperatures.
FFY was already in the midst of a fundraising drive to replace all three of the older passenger vans, which are used to transport youngsters in after-school programming to various sites, Willats said. By transporting kids to other locations, such as Columbus Youth Camp on the west side, it can help lower the growing wait list for kids wanting to take part in programming, she said.
Chevrolet of Columbus owner Leo Portaluppi, who built and opened a new dealership on Columbus’ west side in 2016, said the car dealership had already been working with FFY to find a creative way to replace the vans when the breakdown occurred, and the dealership decided to step in a little more quickly.
FFY had rented a van in the interim, which was a tough thing for the agency, so Portaluppi and his staff went out to find a van with the specifications FFY needed and bring it to Columbus. And while the dealership had been working with FFY on the fundraising campaign, Portaluppi agreed to donate half the cost which was matched by FFY’s fundraising campaign so the van could get on the road as soon as possible.
“We needed to help them on this one, and we’ll figure out a way to get the other two,” Portaluppi said. “We knew FFY had this need.”
The van seats 15 passengers and is being used to transport youngsters out to the Youth Camp near Grandview Lake, where youngsters work on nature projects, including working with wood and enjoying a remote control car track.
Willats said Portaluppi’s gesture to say, “If you’ve got half, I’ll meet the other half,” was extraordinarily generous.
“It speaks volumes about the kind of person he is,” Willats said.
In addition to the fundraising campaign for two more passenger vans, Willats said FFY is about to take on a big conversation with the Columbus community about meeting the needs of the agencies’ growing waiting list of families and kids who are seeking FFY programming.
“More transportation is part of that, but it’s a big conversation for the future,” she said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Want to help” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
If you are interested in donating to Foundation For Youth’s effort to replace two aging passenger vans for its after-school programming, visit foundationforyouth.com and click on the "donate" link.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
